This invention relates in general to the treatment of combustion product exhaust from sources, such as combustion engines, and fuel burning furnaces for anti-pollution purposes.
One generally known method of treating combustion exhaust products involves the cooling of the exhaust by passage through a heat exchanger. Cooling is effect by an air blower, a refrigeration evaporator coil, indirect heat exchange with a coolant, or by combinations of the foregoing cooling methods. Air blower cooling of engine exhaust is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,526 to Tedrow, for the primary purpose of condensing out fog-producing components. According to U.S. Pat. No. 2,403,774 to Whitly et al, engine exhaust is cooled by heat exchange with coolant to condense water vapor for return to a water injection fuel system associated with an internal combustion engine. According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,588 to Perry, engine exhaust products are conducted through a helical conduit for heat exchange with a water spray to generate steam.
Cooling of exhaust products for removal of atmospheric polluting components is also known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,772 to Cross, for example, discloses a condenser including a helical conduit through which the exhaust gas is conducted in parallel with flow through a muffler for condensing hydrocarbon material. According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,115 to Johnson, nitrogen dioxide is removed in a contact type separator after sequential air cooling of the exhaust gas and condensing of water therefrom by an evaperator cooling coil associated with an automotive air conditioning system. Some hydrocarbons and nitrogen dioxide are allegedly dissolved or carried off with the condensate for the primary purpose of extracting the nitrogen dioxide from the gas ultimately discharged to atmosphere.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide improved apparatus for more efficiently and precisely cooling exhaust products in a single cooling zone to a temperature at which noxious components and more completely separated out by entrainment in the liquid condensate discharged from the cooling zone.